Repeatedly announced to be a core feature of the retuned programming by ORF's new management, the show received extremely bad ratings and devastating criticism from the start, and was thus cancelled in the middle of its first season.
MiA was set to air at 7:30 pm on weekdays on ORF1, replacing the main evening newscast (Zeit im Bild), which until then was broadcast on both ORF TV channels simultaneously.
Aware of losing many, especially younger viewers to German private stations' daily soaps in that timeslot, ORF wanted to offer a light dramedy-like series with a distinct Austrian note.
Due to ORF's lack of authors and directors sufficiently experienced in the genre, early production heavily relied on the assistance of German personnel, who were planned to be gradually replaced by Austrians as the show went on.
MiA was also heavily advertised outside the ORF programmes, including posters, lottery games, ads in papers, magazines, online and even on beer coasters.